'BINGE DRINKING' ON CAMPUS EXAMINED

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- With a four-year study taking place on at least six
college campuses, the American Medical Association hopes to learn more
about ``binge drinking'' and how to stop students from doing it, the
group's president said Saturday.

Dr. Percy Wootton, who was attending the California Medical Association's
annual meeting in San Diego, said the study began in October. It is being
financed with an $8.5 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation.

The participating schools are: the University of Vermont, Lehigh
University, the University of Delaware, Colorado University, Iowa
University and the University of Wisconsin. More schools might sign up as
the study proceeds, Wootton said.

``These universities were chosen primarily because the student leaders
expressed an interest and willingness to study this problem,'' he said.

The study is being conducted in the wake of two highly publicized
alcohol-related deaths of students at Louisiana State University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology last summer and fall.

In December, researchers at Cornell and Southern Illinois universities
released a national survey that found that nearly 75 percent of fraternity
leaders engage in binge drinking, consuming an average of 14 drinks per
week.

Not only does binge drinking result in car accidents, it tends to lead to a
disregard for safe sex and to poor grades. It also has led to a number of
deaths, he said.

While physicians diagnose many diseases that can't be prevented or treated,
binge drinking is different, he said.

``Here is a national public health problem that can be prevented,'' Wootton
said. ``What the study is going to do is try to determine why there is
binge drinking in the first place."